Sunday, June 28, 2020

Pecopteris Fern Fossil


As of June 2020, on display at the  New Harmony Indiana USA Working Men's Institute Museum & Library was this Pecopteris fern fossil. The fossil dates to Pennsylvanian Period. Specimen accession number WMI 300.7 and is part of the James Sampson collection. Fossil found in the Bond Formation at the Rush Creek locality of Posey County, Indiana, USA.

New Harmony was named by Robert Owen in 1825 after purchasing it from the Harmony Society who founded Harmony there in 1814. A number of earlier American geologists lived in this town including William McClure, Gerard Troost, David Dale Owen, F. B. Meek, E. T. Cox, B.F. Shumard, and Richard Owen. Naturalists Thomas Say and Charles-Alexandre Lesueur also lived in New Harmony. Thomas Say is buried near the center of the town.